St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-10-31
Ramsey County's Done Up in
Vigorous English at the
Plymouth Church. 81
DR.. Dana, Gov. McGill and SEED
rotary Hart Condemn 1t
Quite Vigorously. III |
Resolutions on Prison Sunday
Favor Forming a Prison |
ers' Aid Society. 3oo
What Pastors Have to SAVIOR
the Subject Of Jails and
Prisons. 90

Plymouth church was well filled last
evening with an audience assembled to
hear discussion of the condition of the
various city and county prisons of the
state. All the speakers united in con-
demning the Ramsey county Jail, and,
in fact, all the jails and lock-ups in the
state with the exception of those at Red
Wing and Fergus Falls, which have
been built according to plans furnishe d
by the board of corrections and char
tiles.
The first speaker was DR.. Dana, who,
in introducing the service, said:
Neither the cure nor the prevention of
crime can be left simply to the state, if
the churc is to justify its existence.
For criminals, looked at from her point
of view, represent her failures. The
churches cannot ignore the existence
bering the contagiOuSneSs of vice and
crime, can she overlook this profile
source of evil. The age of John How
ard is happily past, when he had to
arouse an apathetic and incredulouS
nation. from its blindness and pagan in,
difference and show the awful results of
| having excluded, or not admit
ted, agencies for moral and relig-
iOuS reform into the prisons of Britain.
1t is safe to say that there is a lament
able amount of ignorance as to the con-
ditiOn of our local prisons on the part of
those resident near them. 1t is this ig
norance or indifference the observance
of national prison Sunday is intended
to remove. No less an authority in pen
Ology than Gen. BrinkerhOff, of Ohio,
after careful and extended inspection,
has said, "that with less than half
dozen exceptions, all the county jails
and city prisons in the United States
are crime schools maintained at public
expense" In every Jail you will find
where there are dozen inmates who
and are adopts in all its
arts and appliances, they are
the teachers to whose in
t1uence we surrender first offenders,
suspects. witnesses held for testimony
in coming cases, innocent persons
falsely accused of crime; and we leave
them under. this sort of tutelage and
then wonder that our criminals are Din
creasing and that crime becomes mere
daring and universal. The first essen
tial to prevent contamination in Ouriefty
jails and lockups is continuously neg
lected by civic authorities, unappaHed
by the fearful burdens crime entails on
the body polite, and that is the absolute
separation of all prisoners committed
to these places.
WE HAVE But ONE JAIL 40
in this state where this separations is
secured, and there are not half dozen
others in the entire country. Yet that,
according to English prison authorities,
is the first Indispensable condition of
yVpII-arranQQ6- 1aIl L.. > s.
Speaking to the conscience of this
community Issolemniys declare that iii
its jail and lookup every principleaOf
wise and humane dealing with those
who perfOrce became their inmates has
been ignored. 1t has not been possible
to secure classification or even separa-
ton of prisoners:in the Ramsey county
jail, and, therefore, without its
being the fault of the officer in charge
of it, l affirm that it has been a school
of crime in which criminals have been
educated and fitted for life they else
would not have followed, and all at the
expense of the taxpayers of this city
and county. We have been culpably
Indifferent as community to this state
of affairs, and, pushing our material en-
terpriSeS with a commendable zeal, have
allowed this crime school to remain in
our midst, a disgrace to our very civili-
cation and a blot upon the city's good
name. We have over 800 prisoners in
our own state, and the number steadily
increases.
Gov. McGill was next introduced. He
said he was glad to give any support he
could to this move. In regard to the.
county Jail and city lookup of Ramsey
county and ST. Paul, respectively, | may
say simply and briefly that they are
disgrace to- the city and the community
at large said the governor. ut is the
duty of all citizens to visit these places
and see them in their utter hOrribleness.
/ That such a. state of things exists is
yonr, fault, my fault and eyerybody's
fault. In visiting the county Jail found
a large number of male prisoners con-
fined in cells, and separated only by a
corridor and a mere grating from fe-
male eonvicts. Every word spoken by
the men could be easily heard by the
women. In one of these cages was a
young girl whose only privacy was OBJ
tanned by means of a blanket hung up
to hide her when she went to bed. Pub
lie sentiment is to blame for this condi-
ton of affairs. Whenever you
WANT NEW JAZZ.
you can have it, and l am satisfied that
it is needed above all things and as soon
as possible,
The next speaker was Secretary Hart,
of the board of corrections and chari-
ties. sit is true" said he, ''that there
has beena great advance in prison re-
form of late years, but the county jailS
of this state are little better than those
described by Howard. There are in
Minnesota 156 lOckups, and with few
exceptions they are an abomination and
a diSgrOce to the state. On eXamina-
ton we find the bedding always filthy,
usually scanty, and the places mere
! fire traps. The difference between the
st. Paul lookup and the various other
lOckups is that the city lookup is cleaned
out daily, while those like the one lat
Sank Centre are shoveled out once a
year. There are fifty-six county jails in
the state. Twelve of them are similar
to the lockups and few are in cellars.
| Gov. McGill described the Ramsey
countyjail truthfully, and would sooner
| put a child of mine into a smallpox
hospital than into such 4
vile place. There IS No beer
saloon in this city tina. dces
so much to promote vice as that same
Ramsey county jail. The true system
| is the absolute separation Of al, sass
| cOnvlctS, suspects, aiiti al. =
Gov. Marshall then spoke brteHy cs
| the hard time the discharged cpDVtes
had in securing employment after his re-
lease, and advocated TIE forms:Ioe of
| prisoners aid societies D, Dana -seH
series of resolutions. advocating she
formation of such societies, wh.ck wu
! passed by rising vote Ct Me 0anRre
| CATION.